A 12 year old fought off competition from more than 39,000 children across the country to be listed in the top 10 entries for the National Young Writers’ Award, judged by comedian and children’s author David Walliams.

Edward Adams from The Latymer School, was named the regional winner for Chingford last week before the top 10 were announced yesterday.

As a children’s author David Walliams has written 12 children’s novels and five picture books, for which he has received enormous critical and commercial success. He has been published in 53 languages, sales now exceed 19.3 million units across all editions and as it stands, he has 10 per cent of the Children’s Fiction market in the UK. His book The World’s Worst Children 2 was the UK’s best-selling book for five continuous weeks after publication.

David says: “I was overwhelmed by the quality and creativity of the stories I was reading and was so impressed that this broad range of exciting ideas have come from such young writers. Each piece of writing drew me in and kept me captivated by clever and observant story lines and engaging characters. We definitely have some future star authors here.”

Children were tasked with writing a 500 word story on this year’s theme: Heroes.

Edward impressed the judge’s with his story You Can All Laugh If You Want.

The competition, organised by tuition provider Explore Learning, is now in its tenth year and inspired thousands of children to create a story. Every child that entered the National Young Writers’ Awards will receive a certificate to celebrate their story, along with personalised feedback from Explore Learning.

The top 10 entries will receive £250 worth of books for their schools from Letts Revision, plus a large print of the opening line of their story by QuirkyLime.

The overall winner will be selected, from these 10 children, by this year’s judge author and entertainer, David Walliams and the team at Explore Learning. He’ll surprise the winner with a school assembly on the June 18. He will present them with a trophy, a trip to Disneyland Paris for them and their family and £500 worth of books for their school.

Charlotte Gater, head of curriculum at Explore Learning, says: “This year’s National Young Writers’ Awards attracted a record number of entries to so make it to the top 10 in the country is really something to be proud of. We have been absolutely blown away by how many children sent us heroic tales and loved reading them all. Hopefully being named a runner up will inspire Edward Adams to continue writing.”